The question of 2021 fees was passed to the BSA. I am summarizing their response because I don’t have permission to copy the text.
In previous years, online registration was disabled in December so that it did not mess up unit recharter. The BSA now has a way to collect fees for future years so it was decided that on Nov 1, the system would charge for 2021 if the unit registration expired in December. The systems will communicate so that these Scouts are included when the recharter is processed.
We have asked for how this is supposed to work when a Scout is registering in a 2nd unit for the first time since the family may have already paid the primary unit for 2021.
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If they’re going to make the process even more complicated for unit volunteers and council staff to sort out who’s paid and who hasn’t, I really wish they would just move to a national membership system, where everyone renews their own registration annually, and units need only reaffirm who is affiliated with them. Even then, it would be nice if units could do that in real-time, rather than annually so the records are actually up to date.
In my dream, rechartering would consist of the CO renewing their agreement, and that’s it. Then, joining, renewing, and switching leadership positions could all be moved to separate and more streamlined processes.
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With how long charters work, this could be messed up for some time.
Some of the issue is the lack of communication. When was this implemented, how does it work, etc was not shared.
This is a response coordinated with BSA’s Information Technology group.
A new default setting was introduced on November 1st for any online registration being made 2 months before their unit recharters to collect the recharter fee. This was introduced to allow registrations to continue as units recharter, these fees will connect to the recharter and the youth will be included in the new charter too.
In the past the online registration system was turned off in December as it would mess up late registrations for units rechartering. This year it was determined, now that we have a system to collect future year fees online, that beginning November 1st, all online new registrations for members of units rechartering in December would automatically be charged the recharter fee too.
When using Internet Rechartering the renewing unit will do Load Roster to bring in the most current information from Council records. This includes the record of members who joined through Online Registration and made an Advance Payment. Once the unit roster load has occurred, if a unit accepts additional members from Online Registration, they will use a feature in Internet Rechartering named ‘Update Unit Roster’ to bring in these additional members. This step may be repeated multiple times and is recommended before the renewal is completed for submittal to the Council. After submittal of the renewal if there are additions this is handled by the Council in the ScoutNET membership system.
- The above information provided here was announced just recently councils, but some councils may not have yet shared this information.
However, there is one enhancement that the folks in IDG are working on right now to fix:
Presently the system does not address the fact that no fees should be collected beyond the first unit when a Scout is registered in more than one unit.
Also, a new feature to Internet Rechartering will be released next week to allow Councils to omit the Online Payment options of Credit Card (CC) or Electronic Check (ECP). This will facilitate fee collection in a Council that wants to change a future term and collect the funds directly. Councils are being informed that to make this change they must submit an incident through Member Care to request change of payment options. Either CC or ECP, or both, may be requested by the Council for turn-off.
For councils changing their unit recharter date, Internet Rechartering itself cannot be changed from a renewal for a 12-month term. This change is made by the Council in ScoutNET. The Council should provide a worksheet to all units for the calculation of a different registration term and fee payments for the upcoming renewal. The unit will go by the worksheet and not the fees calculated by Internet Rechartering. The Pay Direct to Council selection avoids having a unit pay for 12 months when the new term might be nine or ten months or fifteen months.
Thank you so much Rick. Communication like this helps breakthrough what for the masses (like me) see as a monolithic box.
I guess the issue still remains that when the system went live (or before), the communication that went to councils should have been posted at least in my.scouting, if not the forums. Those who are engaged, when informed, can help things go smoother. As a friend once said, even when the system didn’t have a technical right to succeed. This will also need to be cascaded into the pretty good training for my.scouting registration.
What needs to also happen is this info needs to get to the commissioner corps on the “update unit roster”. Our commissioners have already completed the recharter training with all units.
So, in the end, this is a REAL improvement, disguised as a pain. Thank you again.
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@Matt.Johnson - You are spot on when it comes to communications. Some of this was/has bee n communicated. Some has not been communicated in a timely fashion. At this time the National Service Team Chairman Larry Chase is working on a push communication to ALL commissioners that comes more often than the quarterly newsletter.
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